By SCOTT TAVES, SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Updated 10:00 pm, Thursday, December 1, 2005

If you're one of the thousands people who has bought an HDTV set recently, you may be doing yourself a gross disservice.

Sure, you can pull in some local high-definition broadcasts with a carefully arranged antenna and satellite or cable has some HD programming to show off that shiny new set. But all this is still ... TV.

A high-definition TV set truly shines when it's at the center of a home theater setup, booming and screaming your favorite movies. Ahh, the promise of digital, crystal clear video and audio fulfilled. Your DVD library has overtaken the shelf space of books and CDs combined.

But unless you upgraded your old DVD player recently, your movies aren't looking anywhere near as stunning as they could be.

For now, forget about the upcoming "true" HD players and recorders. The competing Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats are threatening to engage in an all-out war, the likes of which hasn't been seen since VHS vs. Betamax. Best wait it out since the early adopters often are left kicking themselves.

In the meantime, there are upconverting DVD players out now from $149 and up (way up) that can squeeze every last bit of fidelity out of your DVD collection.

An understanding of the workings behind HDTV and these new upconverting DVD players can make the difference between home theater bliss and bitter disappointment. Before your eyes gaze over at the thought of cables, connections and video signals, just think of how gorgeous that "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" DVD is going to look.

TVs traditionally receive an analog signal from a source like a TV antenna or a VCR and can display a maximum of 525 scan lines (the intensity and color information) to create the picture you see on TV. The scan lines are refreshed every 30th of a second to make up the moving image. The horizontal resolution of an analog set is about 500 pixels.

DVD players and satellite TV send a digital signal to the TV. On an analog set, the signal is converted to the analog format; this looks fantastic compared to a VHS tape, but the picture would appear dramatically better if the signal stayed digital.

DVD players output an image with a resolution of 480 horizontal lines. The audio on a DVD contains up to seven separate channels (left, center, right, front and rear plus a subwoofer for bass).

You have a choice of connecting the audio directly to the TV (least attractive, stereo sound) or to a Dolby Digital or DTS receiver and six or seven speakers (most attractive, boom-boom-bullets-whizzing-past-your-head sound).

Up until the advent of upconverting DVD players and HDTV, the video from your DVD player began its journey to your TV as digital information and either was converted to an analog signal by the DVD player or the TV.

This conversion, called DAC, is traumatic for the poor video signal and turns it into a shabby analog version of its pristine digital self. In short, the picture's color, contrast and sharpness take a hit.

This brings us to HDTV and the glorious beauty of all-digital video. High-definition TVs can display images with resolutions of 720 and 1,080 lines. The maximum number of pixels that make up the picture jumps from about 210,000 pixels for an analog signal to more than 2,000,000 with a digital high-definition signal. The improvement in picture quality is immediate and dramatic.

An upconverting DVD player is the key to a successful relationship between your DVD collection and your high-definition TV. These players take the digital data from the DVD, with its 480 lines of resolution, and bump up the res to 720, 768 or even the high-definition maximum of 1,080. More lines mean a sharper, richer, more accurate picture.

Either a DVI or HDMI connection from your new DVD player to the HDTV preserves the digital video (or, in the case of HDMI, audio, too) signal from player to TV.

If you bought an HDTV set in 2004 or earlier, it probably has a DVI input. Most new models have HDMI. Players come in both flavors and, to further complicate matters, you can buy an adapter to go from HDMI to DVI and vice versa. Make sure the player comes with the cable you need. You can buy cables online for much less than retail. Google "HDMI DVI cable" or try www.bluejeanscable.com.

The deciding factor should be whether you want both digital video and audio going to the same location. Unless you have a rather expensive new receiver that accommodates an HDMI input, the location you're going to end up at is the TV. And even the best TVs can't compete with multichannel sound coming from external speakers.

What most people will end up doing is running the video signal, via either a DVI or HDMI connection, to the HDTV and sending the audio to a receiver. Let each component do what they do best.

But even if you don't use a receiver or speakers at all, just an upscaling DVD player and HDTV, the results are going to be noticeable to even a casual viewer. Cinephiles, on the other hand, will be drooling.

On a cautionary note, it's critical to keep in mind that no amount of technological magic can save a DVD with a bad transfer. Look for anamorphic widescreen, Superbit editions and DVDs mastered in high definition for best results. Some eye-poppers are "Citizen Kane," "Apocalypse Now: Redux," and "Lawrence of Arabia" Superbit.

Buyer's guide

These players were field tested with the author's favorite DVD benchmarks: "Black Hawk Down" Superbit, "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" Special Extended Version and "Underworld" Superbit.

Prices are suggested list and it pays to shop around (the Pioneer Elite player can be found for hundreds less online).

Now this is the real deal. Ridley Scott's dust-choked vision of hell on Earth, "Black Hawk Down," was stunningly detailed, with rich, earthy colors. If you haven't heard of Oppo, don't worry. With products like this, they don't need any hype. This player outperforms anything in its price range (and many more expensive players).

The slim silver case features an elegant, understated face. This DVI player is powered by the an excellent video processor that eliminates those jagged edges you see during fast-paced action onscreen. Video can be upscaled to 576p, 720p and 1,080i resolutions. DVD-Audio and DivX discs also are supported. Overall, the Oppo player is immensely likable.

Sometimes money is no object in the pursuit of high-definition glory. Pioneer's HDMI player is the poster child of high-end DVD players. Their proprietary Pure Cinema Progressive video processing handles even the most chaotic battle scenes in "Return of the King" with nary a jagged shot. This workhorse will play almost any disc format under the sun including SACD and DVD-A. This unit features iLink audio output that accommodates all digital audio duties.

The Samsung HDMI players are solid, all around performers. The unit is sleek and solidly constructed. Resolutions of 480p, 720p and 1080i are supported. A nice bonus is that there is an HDMI to DVI adapter cable included. The navigation menu is quick and intuitive. Videophiles will appreciate the user-adjustable RGB color levels with presets for PC and Studio levels. Purists may notice some image break-up on occasion. The 950, for $50 more, offers DVD-Audio and Super Audio playback. The gothic, shadow-filled scenes of "Underworld" were characterized by lush, deep blacks.